Into the Woods
by kimandjackKickinit
Summary: Katniss has had a hard life. She has a catatonic mother, an absent father and her safe haven doesn't want her anymore. Where is she to go? The one place her dad told her not to go before he left. The woods. Maybe the skeletons in her closet aren't as big as the ones in Peeta Mellarks. The boy she keeps finding there killing. What is he anyway? A supernatural story with a dark love.


So... this is my first Hunger Games fanfiction. So this will take place in a different world than the actual books. It will have some of the same elements and most of the characters. I hope you enjoy it and REVIEW.

Katniss

Stay out of the woods.

Such a simple command.

To bad I'm always horrible at following the rules.

I duck out of my medium sized house away from my catonic mother. She's been that way since my dad left us when I was 11. I'm 16 now. Some doctors call it depression, some call it post traumactic disorder...I call it a woman who should've grown up before having a kid.

My father was a good man before he left, I think. He had laugh lines from a joyous attitude, his eyes twinkled with happiness whenever we made eye contact and he always had the best jokes at any social event. I don't know what drove him away. It was like he flipped a switch to being a sullen bastard one day and the next he was gone. Without a trace or clue to where he went. I like to pretend sometimes that he's dead. He found out he had cancer and tried to spare our sorrow by leaving. Maybe that is what knows.

I remember the last cconversation I had with him. My eleven year old brain naivly thinking he was just getting help for the bad mood he had seem to be in lately.

I remember everything perfectly down to how I found him sneaking out in the early morning when I went down to the kitchen to the way his face softened and hesitated when he saw me.

" Katniss I'm going to be gone a while, honey."

"When will you get back? Are you going to the store to buy more food?I'm hungry." I remember laughing in my own bubble of ignorance.

"No honey, I'll be back soon though."

"Where are you going then?"

"Just some where to help me."

"oh ok." I remember him picking me up and hugging me tightly. I thought he was being a 'silly daddy' as I sometimes refered him to but my younger self hugged him back and squealed.

When he was half way out the door he spoke again." Katniss promise me you'll stay out of the woods and take care of your mother while I'm gone."

"K daddy, Love you."

"Love you Kat, bye sweetie."

He disapeared in my memory like a puff of black smoke had consumed him.

It was the last memory I had of my dad.

I remember thinking how he would be back by the afternoon, so I didn't worry. The next day he still hadn't come back but my mom was getting frantic looking for him, so I told her our conversation. I remember the sheer disbelief on her face until she broke down on the floor sobbing. I didn't know what was happening then, I do now. The next day the police got involved, my mom had a neutral face and explained that he was missing.

After a 2 months had gone by, my mom had almost completly lost all capacity of emotion. She would sit in her room for hours on end, eating small bites of food I infrequently brought. My neighbor figured out what was happening early on. When she first saw my mom she almost didn't recognize the sassy spontanious blond my mom had been. Her hair went from strawberry blond curls to a limp greasy mop on top of her head. Her body had lost weight from malnutritien. The biggest difference were her eyes though, a pretty sea blue shade to the cold glint of a lifeless corpse.

My neighbor is the only reason I survived those first few months. Hazelle had lost her husband in a car accicent a few months back before the big dissapearence. She had a great deal of patience and goodness in her heart for my mom and I. She helped my mom get the doctors she needed, which helped get her to eat for a while. She helped pay the everyday bills since the house was already paid off. We luckly still had some money to pay for some time since saving was a big deal in my dads vocabulary. Hazelle had even taken to taking to invite me to her house for dinner to eat a homade meal. She had a loud and cozy home that I was welcomed in. Her oldest son ,Gale, was 2 years older than me. He kept quiet most of the time and had a hard look on his face most other kids were all younger and were chaterboxes. Rory, Vick and Posey were friendly and had the child like innocence that had been ripped out of me like a veil early on in life.

Your father leaving you and your mother becoming a dependent zombie can do that to a person.

Back to the job at hand though, the woods. The last thing my dad said was to stay out of the woods, so naturaly after I figured out what was happening I went in there when ever possible. The woods was my second home since Hazelles calls became more infrequent. It was like she was forgeting about me. I didn't need much help anymore money wise because of goverment pay for my moms illness. It was enough to survive with a few new scraps of chlothes each month but that was about it. I didn't care much, kids at school didn't aknowledge me anyway. I was a nobody with only myself to protect one friend was a lunch partner who seemed to get my no talking rule. Awkard smiles and polite waves and hellos were nice interactions between us.

Clearing the thoughts of my mundane life from my head, I saw a perfect white rabit.

It looked happy just being there.

It started leaving and I followed wanting to see the innocent creature again.

It distracted me from my gloomy thoughts.

It looked peaceful as it hopped place to place.

FInally resting in one spot, I was about to try and approach it when a man; tall, muscular and shirtless stepped in my line of view.

It was like I couldn't look away.

The man grabbed a knife and with one stroke stabbed the rabit in the eye, killing it.

I think I made a shriek involuntarly because the next thing I knew the man was staring at me, his blond hair getting in his blue eyes.

Peeta Mellark.

The boy whose family had all died in a fire the year before, nobody knew what happend to him. Nobody really knew where or how he was. He had just graduated with a bright future ahead the very same year. Some said he was killed in the same fire, others said he commited suicide,others said he skipped town. Nobody knew, until now atleast.

Hey guys! I hoped you liked it. I was trying for a creepy, supernatural vibe. Tell me what you think so far! I might incorporate some ideas! Anyway, REVIEW! Oh and this is going to be a romance. Dark but romantic. Love you all, my beautiful readers!


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